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Thermodynamic Considerations of Contamination by Alloying Elements of Remelted End-of-Life Nickel- and Cobalt-Based Superalloys

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Abstract

Cobalt and nickel are high-value commodity metals and are mostly used in the form of highly alloyed materials. The alloying elements used may cause contamination problems during recycling. To ensure maximum resource efficiency, an understanding of the removability of these alloying elements and the controllability of some of the primary alloying elements is essential with respect to the recycling of end-of-life (EoL) nickel- and cobalt-based superalloys by remelting. In this study, the distribution behaviors of approximately 30 elements that are usually present in EoL nickel- and cobalt-based superalloys in the solvent metal (nickel, cobalt, or nickel-cobalt alloy), oxide slag, and gas phases during the remelting were quantitatively evaluated using a thermodynamic approach. The results showed that most of the alloying elements can be removed either in the slag phase or into the gas phase. However, the removal of copper, tin, arsenic, and antimony by remelting is difficult, and they remain as tramp elements during the recycling. On the other hand, the distribution tendencies of iron, molybdenum, and tungsten can be controlled by changing the remelting conditions. To increase the resource efficiency of recycling, preventing contamination by the tramp elements and identifying the alloying compositions of EoL superalloys are significantly essential, which will require the development of efficient prior alloy-sorting systems and advanced separation technologies.

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Acknowledgments

This research was financially supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS KAKENHI Grand No.: 14J03293). The authors also thank the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan for providing one of the authors (Xin Lu) with the Japanese Government (MONBUKAGAKUSHO) Scholarship (Registered No.: 123032) during his doctoral course.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Miyagi, 980-8579, Japan

    Xin Lu (JSPS Research Fellow), Kazuyo Matsubae (Associate Professor) & Tetsuya Nagasaka (Professor)

  2. Center for Material Cycles and Waste Management Research, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Ibaraki, 305-8506, Japan

    Kenichi Nakajima (Senior Researcher)

  3. Faculty of Political Science and Economics, Waseda University, Tokyo, 169-8050, Japan

    Shinichiro Nakamura (Professor)

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  1. Xin Lu
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Correspondence to Xin Lu.

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Manuscript submitted February 1, 2016.

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Lu, X., Matsubae, K., Nakajima, K. et al. Thermodynamic Considerations of Contamination by Alloying Elements of Remelted End-of-Life Nickel- and Cobalt-Based Superalloys. Metall Mater Trans B 47, 1785–1795 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11663-016-0665-2

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